Pain
by RingwraithYJLOVER
Summary: Zeus wants to know why, after Thalia is turned into a tree, and he asks the one god who could give him an answer. Hades. T for, like, one curse word, and lots of yelling. Gods have anger management issues.


**Random thoughts from an attack by the plot bunnies. Not planning to do a two-shot, but I could maybe have something with the other gods realizing the lesson of Zeus. For now, it's a one-shot. I'm embarrassed to admit this has been sitting on my computer, but I thought, _to heck with it,_ and published it.**

 **Oh, and Thalia's mother's name is Beryl because its mentioned in Blood of Olympus.**

 **On with the story!**

 **DISCLAIMER: If I owned this, I wouldn't have a disclaimer. I'd run around screaming 'YEAH! I OWN THIS, PUNKS!'**

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" _Why?"_

Zeus's voice was filled with barely contained rage, and grief. Zeus was wearing black slacks, polished leather dress shoes, and a collared white shirt with a blue and black striped tie. His black hair and beard weren't as well-groomed as usual, and Zeus's stormy eyes were dark, full of rage and grief and a bunch of other human emotions gods and goddesses couldn't help but feel, immortal or not.

His hair was a tangle of wild knots, showing that at the moment, Zeus did not give a damn how he appeared to the other gods.

Which was unusual, but given certain events, expected.

Hades himself wore black pants, black work boot, and a black t-shirt. His black hair was in its usual style, a black mop on his head, and his impossibly dark eyes gazed at Zeus with an unreadable emotion. The face of Hades himself was emotionless.

He sat on his black throne, and Zeus just stared at him through the Iris-message, his face twisted with emotion. Hades would have been a fool to allow Zeus into the Underworld, just as he would have been a fool to go to Olympus. Not that he was welcomed there in the first place.

"I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about," Hades said. His tone suggested otherwise.

Zeus was not fooled.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about! Or should I say, who. _Thalia,_ my daughter. The one you murdered." Zeus growled, glaring angrily at Hades.

Hades shrugged. "I cannot keep track of all the dead and dying. What is one girl's death to me? Besides, I did not kill her myself. I think I would remember killing such a loud-mouthed brat. And you still have your son, Roman"-a pang went through their heads-"though he may be. Besides, I hear she makes a lovely pine tree."

Unfortunately for Hades, Thalia's soul was trapped in said pine tree, which meant he would not get to torture her for eternity just to piss off his dear little brother. Zeus had crossed a line when he sired Thalia after what he did.

"You let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to kill her, and had the Furies lead them." Zeus scowled, his glare becoming fiercer. "You as good as killed my daughter. I deserve to know _why_. She was an innocent girl-"

That comment set Hades off. "And Bianca wasn't? She didn't even know she was a demigod, least of all my daughter! What about Nico and Maria? Were they not innocent? Do not dare tell me Thalia was an innocent girl-"

"She did not ask to be my daughter!" Zeus half-screamed. A snarl was on his face.

"AND DID BIANCA AND NICO ASK TO BE MY CHILDREN?" Hades roared in fury. "DID MARIA ASK TO BE KILLED SIMPLY BECAUSE SHE WAS MY LOVER? At least Thalia had the benefit of knowing who her father was, and what she was when she died. She even got to choose the time, and the way she died. Maria, Bianca, and Nico did not have that _luxury_."

Hades spat the last word in a venomous hiss. Rage, and grief was written all over his face.

"BECAUSE YOU WOULD'VE HUNTED HER DOWN, AND KILLED HER IF SHE HADN'T DIED THAT DAY! SHE WAS INNOCENT! SHE DID NOT DESERVE YOUR WRATH!" Zeus shouted.

Thunder boomed. Hades could hear it through the Iris Message. Both men snarled at each other, and Hades accidently made an earthquake that caused the stalagmites to fall into the Asphodel Field's.

"DID BIANCA AND NICO DESERVE YOUR WRATH?!" Hades hissed vehemently. Zeus went silent. Hades' tone was smug as he said, "No, they didn't. Neither did Maria."

Silence followed as each men just stared at each other, tired to the bone. Zeus broke the silence.

"Why just kill Thalia, though? Why only her?" Zeus asks, and Hades hears a note of pleading in his voice. "Why not her mother as well?"

Hades scoffed to himself, and the action caused a spark of annoyance to flare in Zeus' eyes. Hades surveyed Zeus. He blinked as he came to a rather surprising conclusion: Zeus truly wants to know why Hades killed his daughter Thalia.

The God of the Dead snorted.

Trust that insensitive, arrogant oaf not to know. How could Zeus assume that Hades would brush off him murdering Maria? And the 'murder' of his children (Hades knew he would keep the secret of Nico and Bianca's survival for as long as it was necessary).

And he did not kill Beryl Grace because that would not cause the kind of anguish he had felt when he lost Maria. Beryl Grace started out as a decent, if vain woman, and then became impossible after Zeus met her. Zeus did not love her, he used her, like he used all of his mortal women.

Not once did he fall in love with them, unlike Poseidon and Hades. Yes, they had wives, but both of them couldn't deny the attraction of mortals, how bright their lives burned. How much they accomplished in their life because they were not immortal beings with an unlimited amount of time.

And how it felt to have such bright lights like mortals love you. Persephone was not overly fond of Hades, and neither was Amphrite overly fond of Poseidon. Whatever love once held for Poseidon and Hades is barely there, and they only remain out of a sense of duty. That was the thing about immortal love. It was, well, eternal.

Each immortal knew that their wife/spouse would still be theirs after whatever mortal they had fallen in love with had died. They were stuck with each other, likely out of sheer boredom, regretting the choices they made that led to, well, where they were.

So no, since Zeus had not loved Beryl Grace, killing her wouldn't have brought the pain Hades felt when Maria died. When he thought, for the briefest moment, that the last two of his demigod children were dead, and how because of the oath, he would never sire another hero. Never have another child, never hold another baby that was his, and his alone.

Not his brother's child, or any child of the other gods. Just his, and his lover's. Hades knew that Zeus did not consider the full extent of his oath until Thalia was born, and when Hades learned of her existence, an idea had hatched into his head.

For the longest time, Hades had refrained from retaliating at Zeus, kept at bay by the thought that Zeus, too, would come to realize the pain of having no more children while watching the other gods and goddesses have children.

Until Thalia came along. Her very existence awakened a harsh anger from Hades, born from the anger and grief of Maria's death, as well as the imprisonment of his last two surviving children in the Lotus Hotel. Perhaps it was best that her soul was in the tree.

He wasn't sure if he could stop himself from condemning her to the Field's a punishment simply for existing. If he did so (barring whatever his brother and the other Olympians thought; they could go screw themselves as far as Hades was concerned) Hades knew he would regret his choices.

He truly felt sorry for Thalia, though his anger would not disappear. Hades was not angry at her, but rather at her insufferable fool of a father. Due to ancient laws, she merely got in the way of his anger. It was so similar to how Maria ended up dead that it made Hades sad. If Maria was here, he knew how disappointed she would be. But then again, it was because of Zeus that she was gone.

After a long pause in which Hades mulled over his thoughts, thinking of the best way to answer Zeus, he spoke, enjoying the furious red color of Zeus's face.

"Because," Hades says slowly, his dark eyes full of hate, "I wanted you to feel the pain of losing your first child born in years-decades, actually-and losing them before it was their time to go, before you were ready to let them go, and accept their fate. I never got to say goodbye to Maria, Bianca, or Nico. Did you foolishly believe I had forgotten what you had done to them, my last living demigod children? To my lover?"

Zeus stayed silent, shocked.

"Until all of my children started dying around me in World War II, Zeus, I took for granted any demigod children I had, however few they were compared to yours and Poseidon's spawn. And I failed to protect Maria, whose only wrong was loving me, and I failed to protect Bianca and Nico, who, like Thalia, did not ask for me to be their father." Hades paused, taking a breath.

He closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose, and then opened them. It was a long shot that what he said would get through Zeus's thick skull, and humungous ego.

Continuing, Hades said, "Perhaps the girl did not deserve my wrath, but then again, my children, my lover did not deserve yours. You, however, most certainly did, and due to the ancient laws, and your own blind arrogant stupidity, Thalia got in the way. The girl took the wrath of my anger at you. If anything is for certain, Zeus, it is that Thalia did not deserve to have you as her father. She deserved better, just as Nico and Bianca did."

The red color seemed to have drained from Zeus's face. He actually looked his age, his solemn face carved out of granite, etched with lines of anger, and sorrow. They stared at each other for a moment, crazy, angry dark eyes meeting sad, angry stormy gray eyes.

Hades broke the staring contest. "You never realize what you have until it is taken from you. It was my belief that it was past time for you to learn that lesson, and that was my intention. To make you understand my pain."

For a moment, each god just stared at each other, all of the anger and grief gone from their faces leaving nothing behind but pain. They were tired, and each of them felt exhausted, gods or not. It was not a weariness of the mind, but the heavy sadness of their souls that burdened them, the passage of time that wore them down.

At times in their immortal lives, the years closed in around them until it felt as if they were suffocating. A worn look was on Hades face as he recalled all the times he had fought with the Olympians. Couldn't they ever just get along?

But no, he realized. If they got along, there would be nothing to do. They would probably brood until they faded, mourning over all the mortals they knew that had died. The needed the fights within themselves, the company of each other to escape the pain of being left behind.

Zeus was quiet for a long time, his thoughts almost mirroring Hades. Finally, he spoke, "I do not recommend you come near Olympus or out of the Underworld anytime soon, _brother."_

The last word was spat as an insult, but Hades did not let it affect him.

With a wave of his hand, Zeus severed the connection, and pressed the palm of his hand to his forehead. Sighing, he slid down the wall. Hades, as much as Zeus was loathe to admit it, was likely right. Thalia did deserve a better father than a god who barely ever saw her, showed he cared, and was restrained from interacting with her by the ancient laws.

Zeus was seriously beginning to wonder about his mental state when those laws were made. Damn mortals. Why did they have to die so easily, and so quickly?

But what was done is done, and if Thalia had not been his daughter, she wouldn't be Thalia, even if being a demigod is what puts her in the most danger. Greek demigods tended to die young. And Thalia did die. Sort of. She was currently a pine tree.

He took for granted having children, never realizing the full cost of his oath until he held Thalia when she was born. Did the other gods know how precious their demigod children were? Was this how Hera, unable to be unfaithful to him, felt? Envious of other gods' children?

Envious of mortal parents, who got to raise their children? Gods grew up fast. They never got time to be children. In his own personal opinion, Zeus thought they were trying to be adults without ever having been kids. Mortals were lucky, in a way.

They got to have a childhood, and their parents would correct their mistakes, and guide them, and siblings would help/teach them. His own parents? Well, his mother Rhea had to hide him in a cave to be raised by nymphs, after giving his father, Kronos, a rock to eat, instead of Zeus himself.

And siblings? Yeah, Kronos had already eaten them. One big happy family. Zeus just shook his head. Questions still plagued his mind.

Did the gods care for their children? Did the children know the gods cared, on some level? Did they take pride in their accomplishment's, the way Zeus did when Thalia successfully retrieved her shield from Hal's house (With that annoying boy, Luke what's-his-face Son of Hermes)?

No, Zeus knew they didn't. The gods that had children just took them for granted. The way he did until the pact. The gods, and goddesses were neglectful of their children, distancing themselves from them. No wonder the unclaimed demigods at Camp Half-Blood were angry at the gods.

The unclaimed resented the gods and claimed children, and some part of Zeus knew something really must be done about that. But time was meaningless to an immortal, and a major problem with no apparent solution to mortals anytime soon is only a minor annoyance to the immortals, something very low to fix on their checklist.

And really, how were they supposed to claim all of their children? How were the gods supposed to get them to Camp Half-Blood to be trained? Better question, how many gods and goddesses actually kept track of their children?

Some tried, like Hephaestus, but the blacksmith didn't have the best example of parenting skills. Hera _did_ toss him off Mt. Olympus . . . Definitely not Mother of the Year material. So Hephaestus just watched his children's accomplishments from afar, never letting them know he was there.

That most likely made his kids feel abandoned when they discovered who their father, not dead/missing/disappeared like they had thought. So, yeah. Zeus applauded the effort, but it wasn't helping.

There would come a day, he suspected, when the other gods learned to not take their demigod children for granted. Zeus had learned that rather painful lesson with Thalia (Curse Hades).

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 **So yeah, review to let me know what you think. I'd appreciate it. Updates on my major chapter stories are kind of slow right now. My muse sensed that finals were coming up, and it decided to take a vacation for the rest of the school year, which sucked, but school is out, which means . . . I'M FREE!**

 **Review, please.**


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